Here’s the story: Ubon’s from Yazoo City is a big-time barbecue teram. They travel all over and even market their own sauce. A few years ago, they were in New York City for the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. Adam Rosen bought a sandwich and was told by Allen Campbel of Ubon’s that he was eating it all wrong (no slaw on the sandwich!)

“So I said I’d get back in line and get another one and he said, ‘Nah, come on up here and I’ll get you one,’” Rosen said. “Since that day, we’ve been like family.”

Rosen and his brother and friends decided this year, instead of just visiting Ubon’s at MIM, they’d compete in Patio Porkers. They picked the name Jubon, in honor of their mentors and their heritage.

“Come on, we’re four Jewish kids from New York City cooking barbecue in the Deep South,” Rosen said. Check out the back of the great shirt. Look closely and you’ll spot the yarmalke.

The crazy partying at the MIM barbecue tends to take place on Thursday and Friday nights. Folks are in from all over and the booths are overflowing with invited guests and with people who have managed to either sneak in or befriend someone in a group (the latter is perfectly fine; the former, not so much). But on Saturday, it starts to slow down and even take on a hushed tone at times. It’s judgment day, after all.

Over at Tom & Jerry’s Global Porkers, the day started with Bloody Marys, the universal hangover remedy. The secret to their drink–everyone around loves ‘em–is a spoonful of powdered Worchestershire sauce.

After the Bloodies have everyone back to fightin’ form, it’s about time for the judging to begin. Blind tasting is done in a big tent by a large panel of judges, then on-site judging commences. The nerves start getting on edge when folks start waiting for the judges to come around to announce winners. When it’s down to three per category, the scoring goes back to zero and everyone starts over for final judging. Here judges are tasting shoulder at the Parrothead Porkers. Everyone around is talking in whispers, team members are grinning and patting each other on the back, but these parrot just keep watching the river roll by.

It’s getting close to 6:30, and folks are meandering to the center stage to find out who the winners are…

–Jennifer Biggs

Atlanta-based Barefoot in the Pork has been turning up the heat for nine years at the WCBCC. A sweet victory came two years ago when it won Patio Porkers division.

Early this afternoon, team captain and founder Ed Richardson (above) was preparing for the team’s presentation in the Ribs division, running it like the film and TV producer that he is.

In fact it was about a decade ago when he was producing a segment for “Southern Living Presents” on the Barbecue Cooking Contest that he got consumed with the ‘cue.

He formed a team along with the show’s food correspondent, Claud Mann (TBS’s “Dinner and a Movie”). Mann has a witty account of his experience here.

Richardson says the key to his ribs starts with David Keith at Fayette Packing who provides the meat. Then, Richardson says, he gives the ribs a bath of apple cider, vinegar and mustard, “so the rub adheres to it.”

For cooking, he uses a Backwoods Smoker, and in that water pan between the fire pit and smoke pit, there is a ceremonial addition of four ounces of Jack Daniel’s. “I’m a member of the Tennessee Squires,” Richardson says, referring to the association of friends of Jack. “That’s a tribute to Tennessee.”

The team’s members are from all over. Bill Brohaugh, for example, is from the Cincinnati area. He’d been a judge since 1990 and decided to get in on the cooking part of the swinefest. It came in handy that he’s an author, because he came out with “The Grill of Victory,” an amusing insider’s view of the world of ‘cue. Between his book and Mann’s accounts, Barefoot in the Pork is one of the strikingly literary teams on the river.

–Jon W. Sparks

The judging at ribs has begun.

–Jon W. Sparks

Aah, don’t you just love the smell of SoCo in the morning? Pair it with a Pronto Pup and you know the day’s is gonna be a good one! It wasn’t all that long ago that you actually couldn’t eat anything if you weren’t on a team or invited to a tent at the barbecue, but now there are vendors a-plenty–no one has to go hungry around here.

I read our intern Ryan Poe’s story this morning and felt sorry for the out of town folks who were longing for barbecue but couldn’t find it. Corky’s and Willingham’s both have concessions set up, and I split a delicious and spicy Jamaican sausage sandwich with my buddy and golf cart driver John Lawrence while Megan enjoyed her breakfast. I’m a sucker for a frozen drink and I have to say that while I’m no particular fan of Southern Comfort, the lime slush was pretty tasty.

FM100’s Ron Olson said at Thursday’s official lighting of the barbecue contest grill that “This is the best night of the year in Memphis.” He purposely did not qualify or categorize that statement. It stands on its own. If that’s so, then late morning and early afternoon on the Saturday of judging must get some props for being the best late morning/early afternoon in Memphis. This is when the teams knock themselves out to prepare the awesomely best pork in the world.

Over at Big Q’s Grillers, Quincy Scott and his team reflected on how the on-site judging, which had just happened minutes before, had gone. “They liked the sweetness and the deep smoke ring,” he said.  Kenneth Oatis Jr. chimed in: “It’s the rub and sauce, too.” Their presentation is pictured above; an unbelievably succulent sample is below.

“We work to make it different,” said Scott whose team is in its fifth year at the contest. It started out with the men’s breakfast on Saturday’s at Grace Christian Fellowship and Scott and some friends developed the team. “The contest is a big fellowship by people to cook and eat,” said team member Ken Adams.

Their shoulder entry was sublime, that hint of sweetness at first and then the smokiness while it melts in your mouth.

“We use sawdust,” Scott said. “The smaller the wood the better the flavor,” so they just went directly into the smallest wood units they could.

Scott’s custom sauce uses tomato juice, ketchup and different seasonings and makes a distinct and delicious flavor on its own. “I named it for my wife,” he said. “Sweet and Sassy.”

–Jon W. Sparks

The shoulder division is the first to be judged. Sidewalks are swept, tables are covered with crisp tablecloths, dishes and utensils are at the ready.

A morning rain settled the dust but now it’s only cloudy.

At the People’s Republic of Swina, the judge smiles happily as she lifts the first morsel to her lips.

Several judges are simultaneously visiting neighboring tents going through the same process: Greeted warmly by the team captain, welcomed by the team (sometimes with a cheer like at Pig Stars, who won the Ms. Piggie Idol Contest). Judges get a tour of the grill, ask questions and are then seated for the moment of truth.

Finals are from 2-3:30pm.

Nobody rests easy until then. And sometimes, not even then.

The Pig Stars team greets the judge.

The Memphis BBQ Society feeds their judge.

–Jon W. Sparks

So there’s this little barbecue team from Vermont that came down to Memphis, got a bit of shock from the heat (”We still had snow a few weeks ago”), and took home an impressive first place win for the Poultry division in the Anything But category. Definitely not bad–this is the first year Bare Bones BBQ has qualified to compete at Memphis in May.

I talked with them earlier today and they’re a fine folksy bunch. Pit master Mark Fifield says they’ve always modeled their barbecue after Memphis style, and here was the first word he used to describe it: Sweet. Guys, we need to reassess! Are we just dumping sugar in our sauces??

Anyway, hearty congratulations to Fifield, his son Torrey and the whole team–and by the way, their sweetener of choice is, of course, maple syrup.

Friday’s winners

Best Booth
1st: The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint
2nd: Harrah’s Hogs
3rd: The Ques Brothers

T-Shirt
1st: 10 Bones BBQ
2nd: Memphis BBQ Society
3rd: Cajun Cookers Too

Beef
1st: Natural Born Grillers
2nd: 100 Degrees Celsius
3rd: Pig Diamonds

Seafood
1st: The Beef N the Chicken
2nd: Butt-oh-dacious Bar-be-que
3rd: Page’s Pig Pen

Poultry
1st: Bare Bones BBQ
2nd: Barefoot in the Pork
3rd: Royal Oak

Hot Wings
1st: Fat Side Up
2nd: Royal Oak
3rd: Tom & Jerry’s Global Porkers

Exotic
1st: Never Choicey Porkers
2nd: 100 Degrees Celsius
3rd: The Danish National BBQ Team

Baked Beans
1st: Big Al and the Buttrubbers
2nd: Royal Oaks
3rd: Any Pork in a Storm

Mustard Sauce
1st: Bulab Barbecuers
2nd: Sicilian Smokers
3rd: Harrah’s Hogs

Vinegar Sauce
1st: Annesdale Pork
2nd: The Swinos
3rd: Royal Oak

Tomato Sauce
1st: The Count Bastie Porkestra
2nd: Dixie Swine Cookers
3rd: Radar Hogs

–Jennifer Biggs

Wow! Get your eyes full of those pies! How in the world the women on the Big Bob Gibson BBQ team from Decatur, Ala. managed to get that meringue to stand so high in this heat, I’ll never know–but I’m glad they did. Every year at 6 p.m. on Friday, the pies come out and the folks lucky enough to get an invite come to call.

“These are even better than your grandmother’s pies,” Carolyn McLemore said, and well, of course I can’t agree with that–but they were awfully good. (Truth is, if you’ve been reading me for a good while, you’ll know that I didn’t actually start eating pies until after my grandmother died six years ago, so I wouldn’t even be able to judge.) 

They served peanut butter, coconut and chocolate pies, but my favorite was something else entirely: The cornbread salad. My oh my. I make one from time to time, but you wouldn’t even know they’re the same thing. The cornbread was mixed with beans, corn, onion, tomatoes and cheese and topped with a thick layer of savory sour cream. Yum! Listen–this is not a festival devoted to healthy eating, OK?–Jennifer Biggs

That headline pretty much sums up Kenny Bishop, in town this weekend with the Parrothead Porkers of Hogaritaville. A former drummer for ’80s rocker Gary Numan, Bishop moved to Spain and ended up in the barbecue business.

“I just happened to be in Spain and some guy said ‘So do you want to open a barbecue restaurant?’” he said.

 He did, but he was grilling, not smoking. A trip to the American west converted him.

“I saw those smokers and fell in love with the taste.”

So at Cowboy Cocina in Mojacar, Spain, Bishop grills steaks and burgers, but he smokes chicken, ribs and shoulders. It’s a lighter smoke than we’re accustomed to. “The European palate is very different from the American palate,” he said.

The ribs are dry, though–homage to Memphis–and he serves different sauces on the side. The Memphis sauce is a “sweeter, more tomato-ey” style he said, echoing an early comment from Got Pig? team member Hal Rhodes, who said that when he cooks in Memphis, he makes his sauce sweeter.

Here’s something sweet about the Parrotheads. They’ve got a signature drink called the Yucca. It’s pretty much a lemon drop–vodka, lemon juice and sugar–but there’s a method to the mixology. All the ingredients go into a glass gallon-size tea jug,  ice is added, the jug is wrapped in a towel and it’s passed around for exactly 17 minutes. Everyone shakes it to chill  it, then it’s served from a tube right into waiting mouths. After hearing about it this morning from my daughter, I’ll be there tonight to watch the ritual. And to listen to a lot of Jimmy Buffett music. Team member John Lawrence: “After a day or two of it, you don’t want to hear Jimmy Buffett for about a year.” –Jennifer Biggs

Perfect timing, I’d say…